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How does this sound? A rich, intensely chocolatey cookie, with less than three grams of fat.

Impossible, right? Not for Calgary cookbook author and entertainer Julie Van Rosendaal, who shared one of her signature recipes, for Chocolava cookies, at Christmas in November, an annual celebration of seasonal cooking and decorating at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.

Van Rosendaal rolls the brownielike cookies in icing sugar before they're baked to create a crackled surface as they rise and spread in the oven.

RECIPE

Chocolava Cookies

1-1/3 cups (325 mL) all-purpose flour

1 cup (250 mL) sugar

1/3 cup (75 mL) packed brown sugar

1/2 cup (125 mL) cocoa

1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking powder

1/4 tsp. (1 mL) salt

1/4 cup (50 mL) butter, softened

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoon vanilla

icing sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). In a large bowl or with a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt, breaking up any lumps of brown sugar. Add the butter and pulse or stir with a fork, pastry cutter or whisk until the mixture is well combined and crumbly.

Add eggs and vanilla and stir by hand just until the dough comes together. The dough will be fairly dry - it will seem at first that there isn't enough moisture, but if you keep stirring, or get in there and use your fingers, eventually it will come together.

Place a few heaping spoonfuls of icing sugar into a shallow dish. Roll dough into 1-1/2 inch balls and roll the balls in icing sugar to coat. Place them about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until just set around the edges but still soft in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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